"Venus" Torso Sculpture by Richard Audley Boyce, Based

No head, no legs, and no shortage of presence.

This Venus torso sculpture is alabaster, by Richard Audley Boyce (born 1902), from the mid 20th century, mounted on a base. The torso fragment has occupied sculptors for centuries as a way to study the body and the idea of beauty, and modern artists took it up as a finished form in its own right. Here smooth, pale, rounded flesh turns against rough textured stone left around the shoulder and hip. One arm lifts behind the missing head. A small plaque sits on the black base. Seventeen and a half inches high.

Sculptors have been editing Venus for a long time. This one knew where to stop.